Delhi Haat

I had real trouble finding this place. The big problem is the name. I kept thinking it was Delhi Heart. That's just not it. Until I saw it in print I didn't realize that I was saying it totally incorrectly. I think the real trouble is that I've gotten accustomed to people saying the English "r" as "ah". In any case, I think the name of this thing might not even be Delhi Haat, but perhaps Dilli Haat. I saw Dilli written a few times and I could've sworn people were saying "Delhi." Anyway, none of this is the point. The real point is that it's a big shopping center. The shopping to be done here, however, is not mall, shopping, but clothing and art. It reminded me greatly of the Pongal Bazaar that took place at Kalakshetra here in Chennai earlier in January. My friend told me that there are handicrafts from all parts of India available there. He was saying this from experience about 10-15 years ago. Now, there is food from all parts of India which is cool, but the VAST majority of shops are Kashmiris. Somehow, I'm not surprised. Those Kashmiris somehow end up everywhere there are shops in India. I think I finally offended one. I was busting his chops for trying to sell me something I didn't want at a price I wasn't willing to pay. What happened was I started making fun of him a little bit because he tried to tell me that he was rare as a kashmiri for having left. So I told him, everywhere I've been in India all the shops were run by Kashmiris and therefore I thought that very few people actually lived there.

Funny enough, over the rest of the course of the trip, I saw ever more Kashmiris. It turns out that there are lots of Tibetans around India too, but they are generally ONLY in touristy places, and kashmiris are everywhere.

Nonetheless, Delhi Haat was kind of fun. I bought a long Indian shirt. Not sure what I'm going to do with it in this heat, but it stills looks cool. Here are some fun pics.